the indefatigable bird with his beak in my ink bottle,
and the sheet already plentifully bespattered with black splashes and
little streams of ink trickling over the table cover; such misplaced
zeal was not to be borne, so Richard had to be caged. When he was seven
months old, his beak began to turn from black to yellow. The colour
began to show first at the base of the beak, and it went on gradually,
until in a month's time it was nearly all yellow, though it was black at
the tip for some time longer. As time went on, Richard's talking powers
increased; he quite upset any grave conversation that might be going on;
his voice dropped at times to a sort of stage whisper, as if he wished
to convey some profound secrets. "Oh, you little beauty, pretty little
dear, 'ow de doo?" used to mingle most absurdly with the conversation of
his elders and betters. When he could not have his bath in the
conservatory, I used still to give him his glass dish, which we used
together, for he would never enjoy his ablutions without me, and I
became considerably sprinkled in the process. His delight was to have a
water fight, pecking at my fingers, scolding, as if in a great rage,
using his claws, and all the while calling me "Dear little Dicky;
beauty; pretty little dear," &c., for he had no harder words to scold
with; certainly the effect was most comical. When he supposed he had
gained the victory, he would settle down to a regular bathe, fluttering
and taking headers until he was dripping wet and delightfully happy, and
the next thing would be to perch on one's chair, and shake a regular
shower of drops over one's books or work.

Richard was not, as a rule, at all frightened by noises, or by being
carried about in his cage in strange places, but early one morning, when
he was out in my room, he flew away from the window with a piercing
scream of terror, and hid himself quite in the dark, behind my pillow,
shivering with fright, as if he felt his last hour had come. We found
out, when this had occurred several times, that his _bete noire_ was a
great heron, which used occasionally to leave the lake, and circle round
the house, high up in the air. It could only have been by pure instinct
that Richard was inspired with such terror whenever he saw the great
winged bird, and it showed that artificial training, though it develops
additional powers and habits, in no way interferes with natural
instinct.

The starling has a remarkably active br